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The Eco Pavilion at Wonderfruit 2018

With sheltering umbrellas, Wonderfruit’s circular Eco Pavilion was created to respond to the needs of the activity it contains while integrating seamlessly into the landscape. Photos: Wonderfruit.

While the U.S. has Burning Man and Coachella, Thailand has Wonderfruit, a pioneering festival that attracts more than 10,000 people to the lush hills west of Pattaya on the Gulf of Thailand. Held in December, the four-day event attracts international music acts and celebrates the arts, sustainability and social responsibility with immersive experiences, workshops, talks, world-class cuisine and cutting-edge architecture.

The international design firm AB Rogers Design was tasked with planning and creating the architecture for Wonderfruit 2018. The firm’s brief was to design a series of sustainable structures and immersive areas that complemented the landscape and the context of the event.

AB Rogers designed a series of spaces using local materials that emphasized the indigenous crafts of the area; radiating circles in forms across the site connect different activities as a metaphor for sustainability, with the awareness that sound moves in circles rather than lines.

The Eco Pavilion, designed to hold sustainability symposiums and events, is sheltered by 124 cotton umbrellas that are hand-made and hand-painted. Done in vibrant shades of red, pink and orange, they create a dramatic contrast to the amphitheater-like pavilion cut into a meadow of Thai grass.

The self-contained landscape is enclosed by a ring of yellow maize that creates a living facade and acoustic barrier. For more information, visit www.abrogers.com.